The health services ombudsman upheld three times as many complaints about the NHS trust in charge of Watford General Hospital as it did last year.

West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust also had a higher number of enquiries to the ombudsman than the national average.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman received 75 complaints about the trust between April 2014 and March 2015 - compared to 49 the previous year.

The ombudsman investigated 14 of these complaints and either fully or partially upheld six.

Last year, eight complaints were accepted for investigation and two were either fully or partially upheld.

But four ombudsman investigations were not upheld this year, compared to one the year before.

A report by ombudsman Dame Julie Mellor released last week detailed complaints made to all acute trusts in England.

The number of enquiries per 10,000 admissions and outpatient attendances at West Herts hospitals was 4.13, compared to a national average of 2.94.

Some 7.71 enquiries per 100,000 were accepted by the ombudsman - above the average of 6.16.

Last year figures were below the national averages.

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Julie Mellor said she hoped that by publishing the complaints data, hospital trusts would identify problems and take action to ensure confidence in the healthcare system remained high.

She said: "We know that there are many factors that influence the number of complaints hospitals receive, such as organisational size, demographics and whether they actively encourage feedback from patients.

"I strongly believe that NHS leaders should welcome feedback from patients and recognise the opportunities that good complaint handling offers to improve the services they provide."

In a statement, West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust said: "We welcome the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s report into complaints about hospitals in England.

"While we already publish this data monthly at our trust board meetings, and in our annual report, these national statistics enable us to compare ourselves with other similar organisations and provide the opportunity to share learning across the NHS as a whole.

"We welcome feedback from patients and recognise the opportunities that good complaint handling offers to improve the services we provide.

"We are committed to learning from all complaints and incidents and any recommendations from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman will be fully incorporated into our working practices as part of our drive to continually improve services for all our patients."